Terry Frei

Brodeur's back in the net, in the know

New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur prepares to play Saturday against the Florida Panthers. Brodeur missed 50 games with a biceps injury and returned with a shutout against the Avalanche.
(Jim McIsaac, Getty Images
)

NEW YORK — When he wasn't available for 50 games because of his biceps injury and subsequent surgery, Devils goalie Martin Brodeur missed more than playing.

He missed being in on the inside jokes.

He regretted not understanding the reference to what happened on the team bus the other night in Pittsburgh.

And, yes, he would have preferred having his chase of Patrick Roy's record over by now.

"When you're not around, it's hard," Brodeur said the other night in Newark, after his 4-0 shutout of the Avalanche in his return.

"You get to the rink and then everybody talks about something that happens, and you go, 'All right.' You don't know. You're just not around. So it's kind of nice to be back with the boys.

Zach Parise #9 of the New Jersey Devils takes the ice to play the Florida Panthers at the Prudential Center on February 28, 2009 in Newark, New Jersey. (Jim McIsaac, Getty Images)

I've been in the league for 15 years, I've played with some of these guys for a lot of time, got some great experiences."

Brodeur is five short of Roy's career record of 551 victories after stopping 15-of-17 shots in the Devils' 7-2 win Saturday over Florida at the Prudential Center.

After the 24-save shutout of the Avalanche, one of the questions coming out of our crowd around his stall was about when he first thought about a shutout. "Last night, when I was dreaming," he said, laughing, before getting to the more conventional talk about just taking shutouts if they come.

He said of his return to the lineup: "Everybody was excited. I was excited to come back. All my friends and family are excited. My parents.

Advertisement

I just wanted to do well, and there was a lot of pressure for just a game. Usually, I don't do that, but this is past now and let's have fun now. It was fun, but it was demanding."

Brodeur could pass Roy as soon as mid-March, but if I had to handicap this and pick a most likely date on the schedule for Brodeur to get No. 552, it would be the March 28 home game against Carolina.

The Devils did a lot more than tread water during Brodeur's absence, going 32-17-1, with Scott Clemmensen getting the majority of the work. Yes, my annual ritual of predicting the fall of the Devils and then watching them plug in spare parts and other elements and keep on winning has continued.

Lou Lamoriello is a masterful general manager. That's been a given for many years, but his ability to adapt to the salary cap age — actually, the Devils always had a salary cap, anyway — has added to his reputation.

The franchise that once played its home games in McNichols Sports Arena as the Colorado Rockies still falls far short of what we were told would be the automatic nightly sellouts in New Jersey when the move was announced in 1982. Going into the weekend, the Avalanche's official average home attendance of 15,689 was slightly better than the Devils' 15,541, and they were 23rd and 24th in the league.

And, yes, I'm pretty sure that if the Avalanche was destined for 110 points and a division championship this season, as are the Devils, the Colorado attendance figure would be much higher.

Especially in this era, I don't make sports attendance any sort of litmus test for a market, but it remains interesting to contrast the New Jersey chest-thumping about how the Rockies would be embraced from the start and forever, to the way it turned out.

My experience has been that the Devils' hard-core is among the most fervent and knowledgeable in the league, and now they get to go to the game in a tremendous new arena in downtown Newark instead of a building that was archaic from the moment it opened in the Meadowlands of East Rutherford.

The scattered misgivings about the downtown Newark location have been shown to be overreaction. The Prudential Center, a.k.a. "The Rock," is about a two-block walk from Newark's Penn Station and an easy and inexpensive train ride from other New Jersey stops and even from Manhattan's Penn Station. (It's easier to get from Manhattan to Newark than it is to get from Thornton to the Pepsi Center.) Plus, there are many parking lots in the immediate area.

Soon, Devils fans will be watching the winningest goaltender of all time. My major regret about that is that it seems like, oh, last week that Patrick Roy was being carried on his teammates' shoulders the night he broke Terry Sawchuk's record in Washington. Rather, it was more than eight years ago.

SPOTLIGHT ON ...

Zach Parise, Devils left wing

Barring injury or fraud in the balloting process that would make Tammany Hall proud, Washington's Alex Ovechkin is deservedly going to win the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player for the second consecutive season.

That said, Parise, 24, is worthy of being one of the three finalists invited to the June awards ceremony in Las Vegas.

The Avalanche saw why on Thursday night, when the speedy Parise had a goal and two assists in the Devils' 4-0 victory. The Prudential Center crowd was moved to chant "MVP, MVP" after he scored the third goal of the game in flashy fashion.

"I don't know, you get a bit of chills, I guess," Parise told me in the Devils' dressing room after the game. "I don't know what to say. I was surprised. It's a good feeling. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't."

Parise stayed hot Saturday, getting two goals and an assist in a 7-2 victory against Florida, leaving him with 38 goals and 38 assists through 62 games.

The line of Parise, a natural center now playing on the wing, center Travis Zajac and right wing Jamie Langenbrunner has been productive for the Devils since coach Brent Sutter put it together early in the season.

Parise is listed at 5-feet-11 and 190 pounds but seems smaller.

The son of former Minnesota North Stars forward J.P. Parise was born in Minneapolis. He was the 17th overall choice in the 2003 draft and, after playing two seasons at the University of North Dakota, he signed with the Devils and spent the lockout season with Albany of the AHL.

His isn't a complete breakout year, since he had 31 and 32 goals in the past two seasons, but he has taken it to another level this season for a Devils team that just keeps plugging along despite considerable turnover.

Parise is a blast to watch, and he will probably be a mainstay for U.S. national teams for many years.

Not all kids who play baseball are uniformed with fancy script across their chests, traveling to $1,000 instructional camps and drilled how to properly hit the cut-off man. Some kids just play to play.